ohio. thank you so much for joining us, and thanks to our hosts here at the boathouse restaurant. our special election programming on cnn is next. "romney revealed" followed by "obama revealed" begins right now. a man born to wealth, privilege and politics. >> i'm mitt romney, and i'm running for president of the united states. >> i think my dad has always felt like he wanted to be true to his dad's name and legacy. >> a savvy businessman who made a fortune at bain capital and turned around the 2002 winter olympics. >> he has two speeds, asleep or wide awake and fixing things. he is a mr. fix-it. >> a man driven by faith in himself, his family, and his mormon religion. >> you try your very best to know what god might say, and of course you look to get

direction from the church as well. >> a warm, caring man. >> he was going to do anything he could to just say, i'm here, stay right there and we'll be okay. >> or a cold, calculating politician? >> he's made decisions knowing they could resurface under the glare of a political campaign. >> mitt romney isn't pro-choice, anti-choice. he's multiple choice. >> a political opportunist? >> he changed his position on a broad range of issues for a simple reason, he wanted to run for president of the united states. >> or a true believer? >> i know his core. honesty. integrity. conviction to doing the right thing. >> we're going to bring back america. thank you so much. >> now "romney revealed: family, faith and the road to power." ann and mitt romney's summer home sits on lake winnipesaukee in new hampshire.

a private, large and lived-in family retreat for the entire clan. all 28 of them. >> they all just left. a lot of them left last night. i ran through 12 loads this morning. a lot of towels. a lot of sheets. but it's a joyous thing. it's a joyous thing to have them all here. >> even in the midst of a presidential campaign. tell me a little bit about the mitt romney that's here at the lake. >> nonstop. nonstop. he is going every minute. he's loving it. he pops out of bed the first thing in the morning, and he's just going. >> here inside the lake house romney is more camp counselor than candidate. >> fun-loving, warm, spontaneous. get him out of the public eye, put him in here, he is as loose and funny and spontaneous as you'd ever want to see. and just so much fun to be with. >> so what happens when you get in the public eye? >> you have to be more circumspect. you have to be more careful with your words. you know, you just the have to

be very, very careful. and it's unfort the nunate that even, you know, people i think only think of mitt maybe through his business lens. and for me, you know, that is just 1% of who he is. >> and who is he really? first and foremost, a romney. the romney name has been in the public eye for the last half century. a family of great wealth and business achievement, political success as well as failures. mitt was the last and fourth child for george and lenore romney. born march 12, 1947, some recall him as the favorite. george wrote to the family in september 1956. mitt is growing like a weed, as full of ideas and energy as ever. tom mccaffrey grew up with romney. >> mitt as a child was extremely

energetic. the kind of kid that could never sit down. his mind was going 100 miles an hour. >> george was much the same way. you know, he's just got that energy. >> phillip maxwell lived down the street from the romneys in a wealthy detroit suburb. >> george would go out on the golf course. he had fluorescent golf balls, and he would hit the ball and he would run after the ball jogging, hit he ball again. and that was his exercise. >> young mitt not only had his father's energy -- >> there seems to be a special bond between george and mitt. >> -- michael kranish and scott helman co-wrote the book "the real romney." >> mitt absolutely idolized his father in a way you can see drawn out in the way he's run his life. following the same footsteps of the career. >> george romney was a ceo who saved american motors by betting on smaller cars. it gave his son a first look at business.

>> george was a turnaround artist at american motors, taking a company that had lost focus for whatever reason and fixing it. >> and once george made his mark in the auto world, he switched gears to politics. he was the republican governor of michigan for three terms. and young mitt was a fixture on the campaign trail, schooled early in issues, strategies and the possibility of losing. >> and dad's pollster said, george, you can't possibly win. i was a kid in high school, and i thought, oh, no, you know, we're going to lose, i'm going to be embarrassed at school, these little things that a kid thinks. and my dad said -- it was clear, he said, i'm not in this because i worry about winning or losing. i'm here to make a difference. he he's not a man defined by elections. he's been defined as a man of character throughout his life. >> then there was mitt's mother lenore. >> my mom had a softer side.

she used to read to me when i was a boy and gave me a love of culture and literature. >> once a screen actress, lenore met george in 1924. their courtship became an often told part of the family story. >> he left what he was doing and traveled west to hollywood to convince her to marry him as opposed to going into the movie business. he knew what he wanted and was not going to stop until he got it. >> mitt's courtship of ann was in its own way no less intense. they were just teenagers at neighboring elite private schools in detroit. it was mitt's senior year when he spotted the 16-year-old ann davies at a dance. >> i did fall madly in love with him very quickly. actually. but i aloof, very cool.

>> she was very cool, she always had other plans. she went on a date with someone else while i was pursuing her. made me just crazy. >> he was so much fun. captivating. it was just fun, fun, fun to be with him. >> there are lots of stories of good-natured practical jokes. >> at kron brook, he was kind of swimming around, trying to find his place. one of the consequences was he would get involved in these pranks, which were really attention getting devices. >> but maxwell remembers one incident he says crossed the line. a younger classmate returned from break with long bleach-blond hair, and a group of guys, including romney, confronted him. >> he was taken down, and mitt had scissors, and he cut his hair. it was an ugly scene, and it was a long time ago. but i'll never forget it because of the look on this boy's face. he was absolutely terrified when they took him down. >> others, as you know, who went to cranbrook with you remember

some different stories that they say were over the top and maybe even cruel to some students. do you remember it that way? >> no, i don't. and i know that comes up during the campaign season, but it's the first time i've heard that. i'm sure -- >> the hair cutting story. >> i think that's the only story i've heard of that nature. but, you know, the pranks that we pulled were designed to be funny and to have fun, and i can imagine that now and then things that i did in high school are not things that i would want to become part of a presidential campaign. >> that was decades ago. one incident when romney was a teenager without focus and direction. something he would find later in a very surprising place. [ male announcer ] can a car be built around a state of mind? ♪ announcing the all-new 2013 malibu from chevrolet. ♪

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it was fall 1965. stanford university. the counterculture movement was growing. a different world for freshman mitt romney, straight from a michigan boarding school and his conservative roots. >> he has this exposure i think to all these new ideas, all these new people, these new experiences. >> but all romney could think about at first was ann back in michigan. mark marcus was romney's roommate. >> a lot of guys come to college and have high school girlfriends, but you could tell for mitt it was different. he could not stop talking about ann. >> we were so much in love. i went off to college, and i got a job there to earn a little money so i could pay for an airplane ticket to go home and see her. and i didn't tell my parents. >> this was at stanford. >> while i was at stanford. we didn't tell my parents about this.

>> so you snuck home? >> i flew home, snuck home, would take her on a date. >> but as the year wore on, the politics on campus became inescapable. >> he's very affected by this world in which he sees an antiestablishment strain growing. >> as the protest at stanford grew, romney stood with the establishment and for the war. >> his father at that time was strongly for the vietnam war, and he was finding his political footing. really the first time we see mitt romney emerge as his own man in a political sense is when he does lead this protest against the antiwar protesters on the campus of stanford. he's standing up with a sign saying "speak out, don't sit in." >> but romney never went to vietnam himself, exempt as a student and with a high draft lottery number. >> he's protesting the antiwar protesters, but he does not volunteer to go serve in vietnam. he would have been eligible to serve, certainly.

>> at the end of his freshman year, romney would be called to serve, not his country but his faith. as a mormon missionary in france. it was a tradition he considered breaking. >> he was concerned, according to his friends, that he might lose ann, and so he talked to ann about this. and she told him, you know, if you don't go, you'll always regret it, and i'll be here. >> and when he left, i had a very brave face, went to the airport with his entire family. we all said good-bye. i was driven home with his family, and then i walked into my home, opened the door, my mother was there. i fell flat on the ground and just dissolved in tears. and she could not console me. >> for 2 1/2 years in the turbulent '60s, romney was living abroad, working every day to convert the skeptical french to his mormon faith. so this is this kind of

neighborhood that you used to knock on doors in, all day. >> this -- yes, 45 years ago. this is fairly typical. >> mike bush took us back to the streets of bordeaux where he and romney spent 60 hours a week spreading their faith in french. >> did you have a specific message? >> well, we would talk to them about our believes. we would talk about jesus christ. we would talk to them about the book of mormon. >> you're out talking to people day in and day out about your faith and your religion will and differences between it and other faiths. >> getting doors slammed in your face. >> most of the time. this was a time when a lot of people were not happy about america in france. so it was a time of great deal and rejection. >> but romney kept at it. in a rare conversation about his faith, he reveals how the constant rejection led to some surprising soul searching. >> but you say, okay, wait a second. what's important here? what do i believe? what's truth? is there a god?

is jesus christ the son of god? these are questions that are no longer academic, they're critical because you're talking about that day in and day out. >> as mitt questioned everything he was raised to believe in, his father tried to get his son back on track. >> your father sent you this letter when you were in france. and he quoted robert lewis stevenson to you in trying to sort of get you not to feel discouraged. he said, despair not but if you despair, work on in your despair. and then he wrote, so persist. >> my dad, what a guy. what a guy. i mean, he's always been there for me. look, i remember my dad's advice throughout my life. every time i had challenges of one kind or another, he was there with counsel. an extraordinary man. >> who happened to be running for president while mitt was a

world away, isolated, depending largely on newspaper accounts of his father's fight for the republican nomination. >> i have decided to fight for and win the republican nomination and election to the presidency of the united states. >> the war in vietnam was issue number one. george romney had been a hawk but turned against the war and said so. >> well, you know, when i came back from vietnam, i just had the greatest the brainwashing that anybody could get. >> by the general? >> when you go over to vietnam -- well, not only by the generals but also by the diplomatic corps over there. >> months after george romney's now infamous brainwashing comment, his campaign collapsed. an early political lesson mitt romney would never forget. >> mitt's sister, jane, has said for example this really deeply affected mitt and that he's more careful in what he says, more scripted in what he says because

he saw how just one phrase could just torpedo a presidential campaign. >> thank you, governor romney. >> thank you very much. >> if george's failure turned romney into the cautious candidate he is today, he won't admit it. >> some people say you've learned from or overlearned from his mistakes. >> i do that, too. i tell the truth, too. he used to say -- one of his favorite sayings was being right too early is devastating in politics. but, still, it's being right, and you tell people what you believe. >> what a night! >> what romney believes has become an issue throughout his political career. and while the message was clearer in france, his mission would almost cost him his life. >> i was at home, and i had word that he was killed. my doctor told me calcium

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in 1968, france was a dangerous place to be for a 21-year-old american. but mitt romney was right in the middle of it. >> there were protests and there were blockades and there were marches all over the country. >> the streets of france were in chaos. >> there was no train service. there were no buses, no newspapers. the electricity would go off from time to time. there were no letters from home. the money at the time came via check. that was our lifeline, was

getting those letters from home. >> you were totally isolated? >> totally isolated. >> they were out of touch pretty much with 200 missionaries they were responsible for. >> andy anderson's father was leading the mormon mission in france. by the time the riots ended, romney had been promoted to become president anderson's assistant, and they had an urgent assignment. >> they had gotten word there was some little dispute in this southern city in this mormon congregation so they decided to drive down to try to resolve it in person, and mitt was driving. >> it was a warm summer day in june when they began a six-hour drive between paris and the south of france. romney was driving anderson and his wife leola. >> they, i believe, were in the town of beaulac, and, as they come north to the top of a hill, at the top of the hill and in

their way was a mercedes. they had no time to react. the car was on the wrong side of the road. >> the mercedes driver, apparently drunk, slammed into them at full speed. both cars crushed and mangled. mitt romney and leola anderson, unconscious. >> george called me on the phone and said, we have some bad news about mitt, but he didn't tell me what and he came and picked me up and took me to his home. i had word that he was killed. >> the policeman on the scene apparently thought i was in worse condition than i was and wrote in french "he is dead" on my passport. >> we waited for hours and hours, most of the night, to get word from france that he was actually alive. >> i was knocked unconscious and only recall waking up for a brief moment in the ambulance, going to the hospital. >> it turns out that romney had a severe concussion and broken bones, but leola, the mom away from home to 200 young missionaries, was dead. >> it was a great time of

challenge and soul searching for all of us. >> romney, anderson's assistant, was now left to lead a struggling mission. >> the person who had been leading our mission there, a wonderful man, was so injured that he had to return to the united states for surgeries. and during that time, i and one other fellow took responsibility for overseeing the affairs of the 200 or so men and women -- or boys and girls -- that were serving there as missionaries. >> this was a critical moment. >> it was. >> morale must have been -- >> morale was low. by september, we were only halfway toward our yearly goals. >> romney kept the mission going and set an ambitious new goal, more than doubling the target for conversions. >> mitt said, we've got to have people do things different from how they've been doing them. >> so they did just that. >> we were dressed up in

vaudeville outfits that we'd found in the basement of the mission home there. it brought the house down and lifted people's spirits and they were laughing again. >> spirits were high and so were the number of converts. >> we were at 80. >> you were at 80. >> which means doubling it in the last four months. come december 31st, we had 204 or 205 new converts that had happened. so the goal was accomplished. >> and by the end of his mission, romney had cemented his faith. >> these things drew me closer to the eternal and convinced me that, in fact, there is a god, that jesus christ is the son of god and my savior. these are features that continue to be important in my life. >> he was a young boy when he left, prankster and liked to play jokes and probably didn't take life too seriously. he came back much more studious, much more serious. i think discovered a little bit about who he was and what was important to him. >> mitt romney was ready to return home, but an unexpected letter sent him reeling.

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it might be called "the city of lights," but mitt romney's last months in paris felt pretty dark. he had gotten word from his girlfriend, ann davies, that she was dating another man. but mitt had to wait until the end of his mission to see her.

>> he walked off that airplane, and we only had eyes for each other. >> christmas eve 1968. >> he walked right by his mother, his father, right to me. and it was as though time had stood still. it was an amazing moment where nothing -- it just dissolved, those 2 1/2 years dissolved, and we were right back to where we were exactly when he left. >> and he proposed. >> on the car ride home, he was, like, oh, my gosh, i've waited so long for you. let's just get married now. i'm like, why not? let's do that. of course, that was not good news to either set of parents. >> ann was 19, mitt 21. their parents wanted them to wait, but they wanted a valentine's day wedding. >> what did you guys do when you got this? >> yea! all right! >> close friend, dane mcbride, remembers the telegram he received with the news. >> boom, february 14. and you knew exactly what he was talking about.

>> absolutely. >> at lenore romney's request, they waited a month. >> it was beautiful. >> you were in the wedding. >> i was. there was the civil wedding that was performed by a bishop of our church in bloomfield hills, michigan, at the davies home, ann's parents' home. >> the next morning they flew to utah for a second ceremony in salt lake city's mormon temple, where they were sealed for eternity, as the church calls it. ann's parents couldn't attend because they weren't mormon. ann herself was a relatively new convert. romney biographer scott helman and michael kranish. >> when ann davies meets mitt, i think she's searching a little bit for a religious home, the way a teenager does. what does this mean and what do i believe. >> early on when mitt was going out with ann, he did give her some lessons in what was the mormon faith all about. >> but ultimately ann's conversion was overseen by george romney while mitt was in

france. >> and he would pick me up every sunday for church. the reason i think it was so easy for me to talk to him even on a spiritual level like that is because he respected me as his complete equal. >> ann and mitt settled in provo, utah, in this $75 a month basement apartment, starting a family and getting serious about school. the mission experience in france had clearly refocused romney. >> life was very different in america than life for the french. and i thought, boy, i've got to work hard in school, i need to be responsible, i need to get back and work. and i began to long for the chance to go back to school and prepare for my life going forward. >> brigham young university was as far from stanford as romney could get. he seemed at home in this conservative environment, yet in the midst of his new life, mitt took off again on the campaign trail in 1970. >> she isn't sold a lie to a

political ideology. >> this time for his mother. >> lenore romney, candidate for the united states senate. >> lenore, the dutiful candidate's wife, was now the candidate running for the u.s. senate seat in michigan. >> i became so concerned about the direction our country has been going. >> her youngest son, mitt, was by her side. romney crossed the entire state with lenore. >> they felt there was a need for the moms and dads to have a community center. >> her style, a cautious, elegant diplomat, distinctly different from her husband's bull in a china shop approach. >> she was just a very gracious woman, but nuanced, careful, and i see that in mitt. >> i think he had a very advanced and mature understanding of politics at a pretty young age. and lenore romney ended up getting killed in that senate

race. you know, you take away lessons from victories and from defeat. >> from both parents. george thrives on candor. >> there's a growing aimlessness and flabbiness in our american society. >> lenore more cautious. their son looked for a path somewhere in between. but george romney steered his son away from politics and toward business first and two graduate degrees in both business and law at harvard. >> by now, george romney had seen what it took to succeed and what kind of skills you needed and what kind of credentials you needed. and so he was encouraging his son to kind of go beyond where he had been. >> so in 1972, mitt, ann and their two baby boys moved to massachusetts. but their move from utah would not be easy. >> it was destroyed by fire in august of 1984. and the fire department indicated that it was most

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patty cake, patty cake, baker's man, bake me a cake as fast as you can. >> it was a full house for the romneys throughout the '70s here in belmont, massachusetts. >> it was a lot of fun. i was the oldest of five boys so there was a lot of chaos. >> your mother once said that your father was kind of like having another teenager in the house. >> yeah. we thought of him as a really big older brother for a long time. he was just a lot of fun to be around. >> life was also busy. romney was starting a lucrative and intense financial consulting job in boston. ann was running things at home. >> people describe him as the energizer bunny. >> my kids joke and say that i'm the mitt stabilizer because whenever mitt might start

winding up and getting really highly energetic, they know that i have a very calming influence. >> in the '70s and '80s, romney was also spending a lot of time with his church, which saw him as a rising star. energetic, devoted, generous with both time and money. >> everybody was well aware of mitt romney. there was some star power even when he wasn't running for office. >> phil barlow first met mitt romney at church in 1979. like most in the church, he already knew the romney name but not the romney work ethic. >> a person that busy and successful might tend to pull out their pocketbook rather than take their time, and he did both. >> for more than a decade, romney was part of the leadership of the mormon church in his hometown. the church has no paid clergy. so at the age of 34, romney was asked to lead his congregation. >> talk about a growing up experience and a learning experience.

>> it is a time he rarely talks about but was surprisingly open with us. >> i was like the pastor. and that meant if someone was in the hospital, i needed to see them. and if someone had lost their job and couldn't afford to meet their rent payments, i was responsible for helping get them the financial aid they needed. if there was someone contemplating a divorce and they wanted counseling, they'd come to me. >> one of the toughest times for the church came in 1984. led by romney, the congregation was building a new meetinghouse in belmont. for years, there was a good deal of local opposition. you got a call in the middle of the night? >> yes, yes. this building was under construction. >> grant bennett, romney's right-hand man in the church, remembers the call from the fire department. the building had burned to the ground. they suspected arson. >> the clergy in the town of belmont, the catholics, the

episcopalians, the congregationalists, the jewish temple, came out in force and essentially everyone offered for our congregation to meet in their building. >> instead of picking one congregation, romney picked all of them. >> i think he very much saw this as a bridge building opportunity to get to know our neighbors. >> romney was less successful bridging another divide. >> the mormon church is the archenemy of women's rights in this country. >> the '70s was the decade when the e.r.a. was being pushed, and the mormon church came out in the early '70s and took a very active position against the e.r.a. >> judy dushku was a member of romney's congregation and a feminist fighting for women's rights in the mormon church, like having more of leadership role or being able to deliver a sermon. >> there we were, suddenly faced

with a church that we'd all loved and grown up in. and suddenly it was taking this unusual and we thought strange position. >> so what about when mitt romney became bishop? >> i expected a comforter, somebody who would protect women and have an inclusive attitude and be equally interested in the peace of mind of all of us. and i did not feel that in his congregation. >> well, i'm sure we all have differing memories. >> romney recalls a meeting he led with more than 300 mormon women. >> i adopted many of the recommendations that they offered. >> not all. >> but not at all. because the doctrine of my church is not something i'm in a position to change. >> i look at that as a time i saw mitt soften and change. it was a learning experience for all of us. and, you know -- but i saw a person that was respectful and listening and caring. >> but dushku didn't think he was sympathetic at all and believes he bears a grudge against her to this day. >> i think it's indicative of

the way mitt sees the world. there are certain people who matter and certain people who he approves of and other people that he doesn't approve of. and if he doesn't approve of them, he thinks they don't have the same kind of standing, they don't have the same kind of merit, they don't have the same kind of right to function and to hold opinions and to participate. >> something others around him at the time fiercely deny. >> i would call him open and welcome to new ideas. if there's a better way, absolutely, let's do it the better way. >> in business, romney would invent the bain way, something that would pay off in years to come. [ female announcer ] today, jason is here to volunteer to help those in need. when a twinge of back pain surprises him. morning starts in high spirits, but there's a growing pain in his lower back. as lines grow longer, his pain continues to linger.

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it was the heady '80s, big money, corporate buyouts and dramatic takeovers. mitt romney was knee-deep in it. a rising star at a boston consulting group,

bain & company, which had a great pitch -- help businesses make money by cutting costs. >> by all accounts, mitt romney was very successful in advising companies how to improve their business operations. >> but soon romney's boss had a better idea. instead of just advising companies, why not buy them with investor money to generate huge profits. and bain capital was born. early partner, jeffrey rennart. >> it was a lot of long hours, a lot of late nights, and a lot of learning but a lot of success. >> so what kind of a leader was mitt romney during those early years? >> i would say in the early years, mitt was a lead by example kind of leader. he -- you know, he dug in, did, you know, analysis side by side with us. >> and it paid off. bain capital invested in more than 100 companies, nearly

doubling its returns for clients annually. >> how you doing? >> romney made a lot of money. and he would later claim, created a lot of jobs. but a former bank colleague who talked off camera about whether the company's emphasis was on job creation told cnn, quote, we were in the business of creating value for investors. >> was job creation or making money the goal? >> well, every business is organized to create a return for the people who invest in the business. and as businesses are successful and profitable, they're able to hire people. and they can hire more people the more successful they are. businesses are created to provide a return to the owners or the investors, and it has a wonderful byproduct. it employs more and more people. that's the nature of american enterprise. >> ten years into his run at bain capital, romney decided it was time to leave business for politics, just as his father had

done. >> i will work very hard to make sure that everybody gets a good job. >> how are you feeling? >> energized and enthusiastic. >> romney's target, senator ted kennedy. not exactly starting at the bottom of the ladder there. >> i told my colleagues at work, don't clean out my desk or move into my office. i'll be spending time away from work, and it will be a leave of absence. but i really believed someone needed to run against ted kennedy. >> kennedy was vulnerable. his personal life seemed out of control. and, as his son patrick remembers it, the contrast with romney was glaring. >> and opposite my dad was this really great-looking guy who was a whiz at business, beautiful family, kind of the picture of self-discipline. and next to my dad, he was like the perfect polar opposite. >> how are you? yes!

>> except during that race on social issues -- >> let me ask you a question -- >> -- mitt romney sounded an awful lot like ted kennedy. >> i'm absolutely committed to achieving universal coverage and doing so for our children. >> were you a liberal? >> no. >> were you a moderate? >> you know, anyone can call me whatever they like but people can look at my policies and make their own determination. >> ted divine worked for the kennedy campaign. >> mitt romney ran as a strongly pro-choice candidate. he told a newspaper in boston, the gay newspaper in boston, that he'd be better on gay rights than kennedy. >> are you saying romney is just an opportunist? >> i think he looks at politics the way he does business deals, that this doesn't represent an ideological path for him. i think anyone who looks at his position on issues has to come to that judgment, that for romney politics is a means of obtaining power to do things that he wants to do. >> by the fall of 1994, it was a dead heat.

and the kennedy campaign was looking for a silver bullet. they found it in bain capital. >> i don't like romney's creating jobs because he took every one of them away. >> the ads featured workers for a paper company in indiana. after a bain-owned company took it over, many of its workers lost their jobs. romney says he wasn't at bain at the time. his opponents say his actions led to the job cuts. >> if you think you'd make such a good senator, come out here to marion, indiana, and see what your company has done to these people. >> it worked so well the obama campaign is using the same indiana company, even the same people, again. >> he doesn't care anything about the middle class or the lower class people. >> if we are successful -- >> romney's religious beliefs played a part as well. senator kennedy's nephew joe at one point attacked the mormon church for not allowing blacks

to join the priesthood, a policy that had changed 16 years earlier. romney went on the offensive, citing the speech john f. kennedy gave addressing his roman catholic faith. >> in my view, the victory that john kennedy won was not just for 40 million americans who were born catholics. it was for all americans of all faiths. and i'm sad to see that ted kennedy is trying to take away his brother's victory. >> my son's position is the same as jack kennedy's position. >> even romney's father, george, entered the fray. >> i think it's absolutely wrong to keep hammering on the religious issue. >> mr. romney -- >> then in october, a critical debate. >> senator kennedy and his family have a multiple real estate empire across this country. >> romney accused the kennedy family of financially benefiting from real estate deals. >> senator, 15 seconds. >> mr. romney, the kennedys are not in public service to make money.

we have paid too high a price in our commitment to the public service. >> ted kennedy began pulling away, and mitt romney lost. >> he was back at work the next day. the election was tuesday night. wednesday morning he was back at his desk. >> we kind of expected it. it was -- it's interesting. ann was more upset by it than i. losing put me back into business and i was more successful than i had been before. >> but not long after, something that would make political defeat seem trivial. >> i think my diagnosis was probably the roughest thing we had to go through as a couple. up. a short word that's a tall order. up your game. up the ante. and if you stumble, you get back up. up isn't easy, and we ought to know. we're in the business of up. everyday delta flies a quarter of million people

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it was just before thanksgiving 1998. >> she began to see some numbness on her right side. it began spreading larger and larger. she was having more difficulty getting up stairs. and we went to a neurologist. >> romney's life was about to take an unexpected and unhappy turn. >> we went into his office, and he performed an examination. and it was very clear she was flunking the examination. she couldn't stand on her right foot without falling over and so forth.

he stepped out, and she began to cry and i welled up tears as well. we hugged each other, and she said, something's terribly wrong. >> at age 49, ann romney was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis, an incurable disease that can shut down the central nervous system. >> you don't know how much is it going to chew me up and spit me out. where and when is it going to spit me out? how sick am i going to get? is this going to be progressive? am i going to be in a wheelchair? and it's a very, very frightening place to be. >> and i know ann was really distraught and distressed with the diagnosis, particularly as time went on, because she was really ill for quite a while. >> i really just was having a very, very hard time and was very depressed and had kind of given up a little bit. >> it was a tough moment for both of them. it was interesting to see the way he treated her as they went through that. very caring, very loving.

very frustrating for him not to be able to step in and fix it, but it was -- you know, they drew even closer. >> even when i was as sick as that, he would curl up in the bed with me. >> take a minute. >> so you just knew that that's where he was. it was like he was going to do anything he could to just say, i'm here, you're okay, just stay right there, and we'll be okay. >> as the romneys were struggling to get ann's m.s. under control, they were about to face a challenge of an entirely different sort. >> could the scandal over salt lake's olympic bid shatter our city's quest to host the olympic games? >> the 2002 olympics were in trouble. salt lake city was embroiled in

a bribery scandal that threatened to bring down the games. so the search was on for someone to repair the damage. romney knew finance, politics and was a mormon. and that made him the top choice. >> they called me instead of mitt because they knew mitt would turn them down flat. >> she called me at work and said, i want you to -- don't say no, mitt. i think you ought to go run the olympics. don't be ridiculous. that's absolutely crazy. i'd never do that. but over time she convinced me. >> so despite ann's health issues, the romneys left bain and moved to utah in 1999. but when romney really left bain capital is now controversial. on paper, he remained chief executive officer, raising the question of his responsibility for companies that laid off workers when he was in utah. he says that he was gone from the company completely, that the olympics were all-consuming. >> when he got there, it was a disaster. and he was panicked. he really seriously considered

saying, it's not going to work here, there's just too many problems. >> romney needed help so he rallied an old friend from bain capital, fraser bullock, to be the games' chief operating officer. >> mitt did describe it as stepping into an empty elevator shaft because you're falling and you're not sure when you will hit ground. >> bullock joined the team that tried to do damage control. they created an operating plan and tried to convince sponsors to stay on board and took a critical look at the nearly $400 million budget deficit staring them in the face and even got rid of the usual catering at olympic board meetings. >> we had domino's pizza, and it was a dollar a slice. because he knew he could buy a pizza for five bucks, cut it into eight slices, sell them for a dollar a slice, get $8 of revenue for every pizza at a cost of $5. he turned the lunches from a cost center into a profit center. >> the olympics is like putting

on seven super bowls a day for 17 days straight. >> and he became the public face of the games, even becoming and amateur participant, seen here on the skeleton. so did he say one day, i think i'm going to try the skeleton? >> yeah. he said, i'm going to go try this. he got better and better and better so he could get going 70 miles an hour, which is crazy. >> but hidden from the public was the continuing personal struggle. >> mitt was always just constantly worried about ann. she was really deteriorating. >> and she battled through it. she got good help from wonderful physicians. >> by august of 2001, it looked like they had ann's m.s. and the olympics under control. but then -- 9/11.

>> billowing into the sky. >> there's smoke everywhere. >> unspeakable sorrow and a very real fear of terrorism at the olympics. >> it's a time for us to make sure that everyone in the world recognizes that we don't stop as a nation, that the characteristics of honor and courage, sacrifice and devotion, which is represented by the olympic athletes, is a message more important today than perhaps ever before. >> over the next five months and with the help of some money from the federal government, security was beefed up. and the games began. >> we had about 2,500 athletes that came in, did the parade of nations, walked all the way around. >> it was a great moment for him, i think. as one political pollster in utah said at the time, mitt romney could walk on water at that point. >> but not everyone agreed. >> mitt and i often had

disagreements about how or what we thought the games were about. and i wasn't on his team, so to speak. >> it's a gold medal day for utah. >> ken bullock, no relation to fraser bullock, was on the organizing committee of the salt lake city olympics before and after romney was brought on board. he was a sort of my way or the highway kind of guy? >> absolutely no question. to me, the games were about utah. it wasn't about mitt. >> bullock claims romney made the problems look worse than they really were, a calculated political move to ensure public success. did we need to raise revenue? yes. were we three years out? yes. big difference of the games being around the corner. >> you think he overstated the problems? >> dramatically. dramatically. >> it's a charge the romney camp scoffs at. and in the end, the 2002 olympics were profitable and one of the most successful winter games in history.

>> he had pulled off this big success. he had rescued these games. and now it was a question of what he would parlay that into. >> it wouldn't take long for that question to be answered. . ♪ introducing the new 13-inch macbook pro, ♪

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hello, i'm victor blackwell. with just the three days to election day, president obama and mitt romney are setting a dizzying pace. president obama stum pd today in wisconsin, ohio, and iowa. and he wraps up in virginia. governor romney started in new hampshire, spoke at ohio and wraps up with two campaign stops in colorado. will. because of last week's storm, people in new jersey can vote electrically on tuesday. the governor's office says it's

widening the fax and e-mail program used by absentee voters and deployed military. the storm wiped out so many strstr structures officials want to eesz the pressure on polling places. at least 106 u.s. deaths are blamed on this massive storm and emergency rockers are still looking for victims. almost 2.5 million people are still without power and damage estimates are $30 billion to by billion ldz. an update on the recent meningitis outbreak, dozens of new meningitis outbreaks due to those injectable steroids. we return you now to "romney revealed." the opening ceremonies for the 2002 winter olympics were still more than a month away,

but mitt romney already had other plans. beth myers remembers getting a call from romney in january. >> i'm thinking about running for governor, and would you have any interest in helping me run my campaign? >> massachusetts had a republican governor, jane swift, but party leaders saw her as weak so they came to romney in a panic. >> jane swift gets wind of this, and two days later she bows out. she's out and mitt romney is in. he flies back to belmont with his wife, ann, they're both wearing olympic jackets and give a press conference and the campaign's begun. >> campaign spokesman fernstrom. >> it was like being launched out of a rocket. >> how you doing? >> as you know, this is a very democratic state.

the legislature is 85% democrat, very few republicans make it into statewide office. so we had a fight on our hands. >> he ran as a moderate on social issues, vowing to clean up state government. >> would you raise your right hand, please? >> it worked. >> congratulations, governor. >> thank you. >> from the beginning, romney relied on a small set of advisors. beth myers, who has never spoken on camera before, was chief of staff. >> people call you romney's romney. >> for four years, we sat in offices that had a door between us, and we popped back and forth between each other's offices all day long. we talked about faith. we talked about the issues of the day. >> first order of business, treat government like a business. >> we had a huge budget deficit. so every morning, we'd come in and we'd have stacks and stacks of budget books, and line by line -- and mitt would meet in his staff office every morning with the cabinet secretaries. >> it was the way he had always done it.

at bain. at the olympics. but here, not everyone was on romney's team. >> i will agree he was a different cat than what people on beacon hill were used to. i think that's probably a pretty good thing. >> i got better over time. i know i made mistakes in how i dealt with others in the legislature, but we started off pretty well. >> then, two years into his term, he set his sights on something bigger, something that would mean a legacy. health care. >> he had not had a major achievement that he could point to as some big political success in a future campaign. he needed something to say i had done this and it was a big deal. >> romney decided to push for health care to cover everyone in the state. but that meant mandating most residents to buy health insurance. >> the governor felt that it would be wrong for the economy and wrong for our business sector to impose a mandate on employers, to require them to

provide insurance to their employees. but he felt it very important that people take responsibility for their own health care. >> it was romney's big moment. but now a liability. republicans bitterly oppose any kind of mandate in today's presidential race. >> i think the politics of it have been so complicated that it's ironic the biggest thing he achieved as governor is something he almost never talks about. >> no less complicated, the politics of abortion. while romney was personally opposed to abortion, he ran for governor supporting abortion rights. but once in office and presented with stem cell legislation that would, in romney's view, have the potential of destroying embryos, he changed his mind. >> i realized that what sounded good in a campaign, when i actually became the governor and was going to be the person who would sign a piece of legislation which could take

human life, i simply couldn't do that. >> democrats say it was about ambition. >> he wanted to run for president of the united states, and he understood that within the republican nominating process somebody that was pro choice or pro gay rights or anything in terms of a progressive stance would lose. >> i didn't ever see it as a flip-flop. i think that what you saw was the tension between personal beliefs and a public persona. >> none of this would slow romney down. his sights were already set on the white house in 2008. but there were doubts about his convictions and questions about his mormon faith, a religion some evangelicals call a cult. >> mormonism is the most colorful and controversial, politically toxic and dangerous because people pull out strands and skewer them. >> there was no avoiding it, though, so romney decided to

give a crucial speech on his faith early in the primaries. >> he wrote it. he really wrote every word. >> he wrote every word of it. you very rarely hear that about a politician. >> he did. >> i am an american running for president. i do not define my candidacy by my religion. a person should not be elected because of his faith, nor should he be rejected because of his faith. >> ultimately, 2008 was not mitt romney's year. it was john mccain's. a brutal loss for romney and his family. >> i feel i have to now stand aside. >> for me, i was like, that's it. okay, we did that. that's fine. never again. i'm an expert on softball. and tea parties.

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you guys are great. almost but not quite. >> i will never do this again. and i just made sure it was very emphatic. >> the romney family seemed done with politics in 2008 and didn't keep it a secret. >> it was again a very bruising thing. i think people forget these are real families with people that they love that are going through these hard times. >> so why the change of heart? >> it was a change of heart. what this m.s. has taught me is

do what is right in pursuing. >> i'm mitt romney. i believe in america and i'm running for president of the united states. >> but it was a different environment this time around. very anti-establishment. so romney was reborn as an outsider. >> i served in government but i didn't inhale. >> it became his mantra. but the tea party, full of contempt for health care reform, never trusted romney, the man who reformed health care in massachusetts. erick erickson is the editor of redstate.com, a conservative website. >> you sit in a room with conservatives behind the scenes without cameras on and ask them how many really believe mitt romney is going to fully repeal obama-care, i don't think a hand will go up in the room. >> and when romney calls himself this -- >> i was a severely conservative republican governor.

>> -- he gets this. >> that's not a line you hear conservatives say about themselves. that's something you hear democrats say about conservatives. >> this is not the time to be doubting people's words. >> one by one, the old demons reappeared. >> romney-care. >> pro-abortion. >> bain capital. >> handing the democrats a primer on romney's vulnerabilities. >> i will release multiple years. i don't know how many years. >> on bain, flip-flops, taxes, secrecy, his wealth. but romney finally crawled across the finish line of the republican primaries and into the general election. and his new junior republican paul ryan gave reluctant conservatives some hope. >> i want to hear what he has to say on this topic. >> but presidential politics is more than just piecing together coalitions. it's also about telling a story of who you are, what you believe and why you can be trusted. >> he's very professional. he's got a bit of new england in him.

when he's out doing a job, he's going to do it professionally. but he's not the caricature the media or democrats want to portray. he's a very warm, caring guy. >> my job is not to worry about those people. >> romney painted his own unflattering portrait and the damage endured. >> his problem during this campaign, if you look at the polls, is that a significant majority of people do not

believe he understands their problems. and when he talked about the 47%, that only seemed to compound that problem. >> i think the first, most important thing is to recognize that that's not an accurate perception, that he's obviously running for 100% of the americans. >> the first presidential debate became the most important job interview of romney's career. a moment for him to fix things. >> as soon as he gets on stage, the first thing he does, takes off his watch and puts it on the podium. but then he writes "dad" on a piece of paper. and that's amazing because he loves his dad, respects his dad, doesn't want to do anything that would not make his father proud. and just a reminder that, yes, i'm here, but, dad, i love and respect who you are, what you've taught me, what kind of a person

you are, and i'm going to honor that. >> middle income families are being crushed. >> romney attacked. obama wilted. >> you've been president fourees. you said you'd cut the deficit in half. it's years later, we have trillion-dollar deficits. >> it was a romney turnaround recasting romney from the right to the middle during the next two debates. >> regulation is essential. you can't have a free market work if you don't have regulation. >> opening the door for the opposition to ask, who's the real romney? >> we've got to name this condition he's going through. i think -- i think it's called r romneysia. >> people say you're secretive, out of touch, you play by a different set of rules. >> i know the obama campaign is going to do everything they can to try and deflect from the economic record of the president and his failure to come up with

the plan to get the economy going in the future. >> no doubt romney is on message this time. he wants us to believe he can fix things like the economy and won't give up until he does. but that's the easy part of his story. the rest is harder to tell. he's a devout mormon who still worries it will be held against him. he's more prag hmatist than ideologue, more private than public, and in the end more cautious than candid, possibly the ult will mat lesson he learned from his father's life. >> he cared about the passion for the mission he was in the middle of fighting for and win being or losing didn't change who he was. he's been defined as a man of character throughout his life. elections don't change that. >> is that how you feel during the election, win or lose? >> absolutely. this is up to the american people. who i am has long been